Development of the War Dogs:

Dexter said:
Well, it’s as Lu said - we do mitts, yes, but it’s more of a fine tuning of certain techniques for each specific student than mass-mitts I saw in the western gyms. As I understood it (from reading “The ark of boxing: the Rise and decline of the Sweet Science”), it was the same type of work in the US, too, in the early-mid XXth, which then transformed into the current mitts oriented-obsession in the late 80s-early 90s.
Click to expand...
Boxing mitts are pretty recent inventions - I think Bruce Lee had something to do with them, actually - and it might have taken some time for them to pass over before the USSR collapsed.
Do the Cubans do much mittwork?
 
ShadowoftheSun said:
Boxing mitts are pretty recent inventions - I think Bruce Lee had something to do with them, actually - and it might have taken some time for them to pass over before the USSR collapsed.
Do the Cubans do much mittwork?
Click to expand...

They do nowadays. But still nowhere near US Coaches. I made that post about Bruce Lee a while back, because I went on a deep-dive for the earliest mitts I could find. There were early versions pre-1950's, but they look impractical and fairly silly. Emmanuel Steward, who popularized early mitt work in boxing, used gloves turned backwards in the 70's and 80's. I found a photo of Bruce's "focus mitts" and they looked exactly like modern mitts. They were stitched, made of leather, and appeared to have thicker padding. They looked like the ones Inosanto is having used here:

 
ShadowoftheSun said:
Boxing mitts are pretty recent inventions - I think Bruce Lee had something to do with them, actually - and it might have taken some time for them to pass over before the USSR collapsed.
Do the Cubans do much mittwork?
Click to expand...

My dad did boxing in early 1960s, and there were mitts already at this time - I remember seeing his black’n’white photos in oldschool horse-hair gloves, and his coach with the strange-looking ugly mitts.
As of about Cubans, they are catching the modern fashion boxing tendencies as fast as everybody else in the world :D.
Upd. I asked my older friend about mitts-work in the USSR, he said that the next popular thing among the trainers was coaches glove:
9280.jpg
 
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Not sure if I shared this before so forgive me if I did plus for tangents and the long post. I am hearing a lot of bad stuff on pad training. In my 20s, I wish somebody would have done mitt work with me. As I aged and got better instructions, I saw the pad work advantage of increasing my reaction time and improving defense and footwork. I think it would have helped me a lot when I was young. My Instructor now shows me quick combinations on the pad to do and you hit them as fast as possible. He would make me chase him, come in fast and switch angles a lot, Lower your guard and he smacks you. In my 20s, I worked construction in several major cities and went to the free boxing gyms in the inner city that trained poor and disadvantaged youth mostly. I just watched other fighters and hit the bags. I got beat up a lot, knocked out 3 times (all by Indy golden glove champions, 2 that wanted to show off to buddies with no trainer in the room and one I had coming from a Olympic class boxer that I went to hard with when told to go easy) plus took a lot of hard shots but thought hard sparing was the only way I would get skilled. Good percentage of sparring was not supervised so I got no instructions during and after my performance. Also my thoughts were on fear of my head exploding or trying to beat him up. Some fighters used 12 oz gloves for us to spar. I think I did not learn much from sparring. The trainers concentrated on their talented boxers mostly. I know the John Wayne Quote "Live is hard, harder when you are stupid' applies to me but I had self esteem issues and thought college was nothing special.

I did not have a trainer till months later and he was just an accountant with no experience but ideas. However, he did no pad work but his supervision did help me although I did pick up a few bad habits. One time I was shadowboxing and Sgt Johnson was watching me. He remembered me when I tried to train at his Camp Atterbury gym but was mostly ignored as I had no talent and he had nobody to escort me from the security station to the gym. I threw a left hook like the accountant taught me. Sgt Johnson flew out of his chair and yelled "Who the Hell taught you to throw a left hook like that!!!!!". I looked to find that accountant and point him out. He was literally running out the front door. I think it depends how good of boxer you are and how what percentage of pad work you need. Of course, you need a skilled person on the pads. For people doing boxing training for fitness, the one on one with the trainer keeps you performing at at high level to burn calories. For beginners such as boxers like me with slow reaction, slow foot work and clumsy defense that have to think instead of reacting, pad work should be a big part of their training. I believe it should be done for a while before the person spars. For serious amateurs and pros, I imagine the pad work needs to be very specific to what the trainer sees as needed improvements. Maybe no padwork is needed. However, I do see some Pro Boxing and UFC trainers using pads to train and warm up before a fight so it must be of some use if used at such a high level.
 
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WDSTK said:
Not sure if I shared this before so forgive me if I did plus for tangents and the long post. I am hearing a lot of bad stuff on pad training. In my 20s, I wish somebody would have done mitt work with me. As I aged and got better instructions, I saw the pad work advantage of increasing my reaction time and improving defense and footwork. I think it would have helped me a lot when I was young. My Instructor now shows me quick combinations on the pad to do and you hit them as fast as possible. He would make me chase him, come in fast and switch angles a lot, Lower your guard and he smacks you. In my 20s, I worked construction in several major cities and went to the free boxing gyms in the inner city that trained poor and disadvantaged youth mostly. I just watched other fighters and hit the bags. I got beat up a lot, knocked out 3 times (all by Indy golden glove champions, 2 that wanted to show off to buddies with no trainer in the room and one I had coming from a Olympic class boxer that I went to hard with when told to go easy) plus took a lot of hard shots but thought hard sparing was the only way I would get skilled. Good percentage of sparring was not supervised so I got no instructions during and after my performance. Also my thoughts were on fear of my head exploding or trying to beat him up. Some fighters used 12 oz gloves for us to spar. I think I did not learn much from sparring. The trainers concentrated on their talented boxers mostly. I know the John Wayne Quote "Live is hard, harder when you are stupid' applies to me but I had self esteem issues and thought college was nothing special.

I did not have a trainer till months later and he was just an accountant with no experience but ideas. However, he did no pad work but his supervision did help me although I did pick up a few bad habits. One time I was shadowboxing and Sgt Johnson was watching me. He remembered me when I tried to train at his Camp Atterbury gym but was mostly ignored as I had no talent and he had nobody to escort me from the security station to the gym. I threw a left hook like the accountant taught me. Sgt Johnson flew out of his chair and yelled "Who the Hell taught you to throw a left hook like that!!!!!". I looked to find that accountant and point him out. He was literally running out the front door. I think it depends how good of boxer you are and how what percentage of pad work you need. Of course, you need a skilled person on the pads. For people doing boxing training for fitness, the one on one with the trainer keeps you performing at at high level to burn calories. For beginners such as boxers like me with slow reaction, slow foot work and clumsy defense that have to think instead of reacting, pad work should be a big part of their training. I believe it should be done for a while before the person spars. For serious amateurs and pros, I imagine the pad work needs to be very specific to what the trainer sees as needed improvements. Maybe no padwork is needed. However, I do see some Pro Boxing and UFC trainers using pads to train and warm up before a fight so it must be of some use if used at such a high level.
Click to expand...

There are ways to teach all of those things without your trainer needing to smack you in the face with a pad. That accountant sucked, but not because he didnt use pads. He would have sucked even if he did use them.

A good program is a good program. When I did mitts 3 to 4 days a week with most of my fighters, after a few months I couldnt pick up my Son my right elbow hurt so bad. Nowadays I use pads sparingly.
 
I meant a Smack more in humor (if that makes sense???), the smack is not that hard and does not hurt. Just gets your attention.
 
ShadowoftheSun said:
Boxing mitts are pretty recent inventions - I think Bruce Lee had something to do with them, actually - and it might have taken some time for them to pass over before the USSR collapsed.
Do the Cubans do much mittwork?
Click to expand...

- I've read that a mexican trainer used his glove as a mitt, and that's how mitts got invented.
 
Sinister said:
Need 100 more subscribers to be able to participate in the YouTube Partners program. If you havent already it will be much appreciated. I plan to up the quality of the content fairly soon, I'll be getting a new camera and plan to give a more in-depth look at the development of my fighters from a behind-the-scenes approach:

https://youtube.com/@LevantarAthletics
Click to expand...

- I subed to your channel now.

Do you like wrecking ball heavy bags?
I barelly train punches, but thought about getting one.

65ef1274280679813a322dd06e23119b
 
Yes they are very useful.

Thanks for the subscription
 
Hey didnt someone know how to embed YouTube shorts here?
 
Sinister said:
I cant be the only person who ever wondered why tag-team boxing isnt a thing:

Click to expand...


As playful as this video is, the basics and fundamentals are really drilled in them, huh?
 
Sinister said:
Well, of course.



Never met one that didnt spring a leak
Click to expand...

Ah, man. I was thinking about getting one. What do they feel like?
 
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